U.S. patent number 7,085,334 [Application Number 10/260,101] was granted by the patent office on 2006-08-01 for automatic gain control with analog and digital gain.
This patent grant is currently assigned to LSI Logic Corporation. Invention is credited to Bradley J. Burke, Dean Raby.
United States Patent |
7,085,334 |
Burke , et al. |
August 1, 2006 |
Automatic gain control with analog and digital gain
Abstract
An automatic gain control system combining both analog and
digital gain units, both controlled by a common digital control
system. The overall system gain settings are selected by a
combination of analog gain settings and digital gain settings. The
number of analog gain settings is less than the total number of
system gain settings, so that the board or chip area required for
the analog gain settings is reduced, while sufficient range is
provided to maintain a good signal to noise ratio from an A/D
converter. When a required gain adjustment exceeds one step of the
analog gain stage, the system simultaneously adjusts the analog
gain and the digital gain unit to provide a smooth transition.
Inventors: |
Burke; Bradley J. (San Marcos,
CA), Raby; Dean (San Diego, CA) |
Assignee: |
LSI Logic Corporation
(Milpitas, CA)
|
Family
ID: |
32029610 |
Appl.
No.: |
10/260,101 |
Filed: |
September 30, 2002 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20040062326 A1 |
Apr 1, 2004 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
375/345;
455/234.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H03G
3/3036 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04L
27/08 (20060101); H03G 3/00 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;375/345,316
;455/232.1,230,234.1 ;330/254,278 ;348/229.1,255,470,528 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Bocure; Tesfaldet
Assistant Examiner: Panwalkar; Vineeta
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Conley Rose, PC
Claims
The invention claimed is:
1. An automatic gain control system providing a first plurality of
gain settings, comprising: an analog gain device having a second
plurality of gain settings, said second plurality of gain settings
being less than said first plurality of gain settings, each of said
second plurality of gain settings having a range equal to a subset
of said first plurality of gain settings; a digital gain device;
and a controller coupled to said analog gain device and to said
digital gain device, said controller comparing a signal level from
the analog gain device to a desired signal level, and adjusting the
gain of the analog gain device and the digital gain device to
provide the desired signal level at an output; wherein said
controller adjusts the gain of said analog gain device when the
number of gain setting adjustments equals the value of said
subset.
2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising: an analog to
digital converter coupled to the output of said analog gain device;
and a magnitude measurement device coupled to said analog to
digital converter and providing a magnitude signal indicating the
magnitude of digitized signals from said analog to digital
converter.
3. A system according to claim 2, further comprising: an error
measurement unit coupled to said magnitude measurement device,
measuring the difference between the magnitude signal and a desired
magnitude value, and providing an error signal indicating a number
of gain setting adjustments needed to correct the difference.
4. An automatic gain control system providing a first plurality of
gain settings, comprising: an analog gain device having a second
plurality of gain settings, said second plurality of gain settings
being less than said first plurality of gain settings; each of said
second plurality of gain settings having a range equal to a subset
of said first plurality of gain settings; an analog to digital
converter coupled to the output of said analog gain device; a
magnitude measurement device coupled to said analog to digital
converter and providing a magnitude signal indicating the magnitude
of digitized signals from said analog to digital converter; an
error measurement unit coupled to said magnitude measurement
device, the error measurement unit measuring the difference between
the magnitude signal and a desired magnitude value and providing an
error signal indicating a number of gain setting adjustments needed
to correct the difference; a digital gain device; and a controller
coupled to said analog gain device and to said digital gain device,
the controller comparing a signal level from the analog gain device
to a desired signal level, and adjusting the gain of the analog
gain device and the digital gain device to provide the desired
signal level at an output; wherein said controller adjusts the gain
of said analog device when the number of gain setting adjustments
equals the value of said subset.
5. A system according to claim 4, wherein: said first plurality
equals 2.sup.X, said second plurality equals 2.sup.Y, and said
subset equals 2.sup.X-Y.
6. A system according to claim 4, wherein: said first plurality
equals 2048, said second plurality equals 256, and said subset
equals 8.
7. A system according to claim 4, wherein: for each adjustment in
gain setting of said analog gain device, said controller adjusts
the error signal by a number of settings equal to said subset.
8. A method for providing automatic gain control having a first
plurality of gain settings for a signal, comprising: using an
adjustable gain analog amplifier to amplify an analog signal, said
amplifier having a second plurality of gain settings, said second
plurality of gain settings being less than said first plurality of
gain settings, wherein each gain setting of said second plurality
of gain settings corresponds to a subset of said first plurality of
gain settings; digitizing the output of said analog amplifier to
provide a digitized signal, and using an adjustable gain digital
gain unit to adjust the amplitude of said digitized signal; and
adjusting the gain setting of said adjustable gain analog amplifier
when the number of gain setting adjustments of said first plurality
of gain settings equals the number of gain settings in said
subset.
9. A method according to claim 8, further comprising: measuring the
amplitude of the amplified analog signal; and determining a number
of gain setting adjustments of said first plurality of gain
settings required to change said amplitude of the analog signal to
a desired amplitude.
10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising: adjusting
the gain of said adjustable gain analog amplifier and said
adjustable gain digital gain unit to change said amplitude of the
analog signal to said desired amplitude.
11. A method for providing automatic gain control having a first
plurality of gain settings for a signal, comprising using an
adjustable gain analog amplifier to amplify an analog signal, said
amplifier having a second plurality of gain settings, said second
plurality of gain settings being less than said first plurality of
gain settings, wherein each gain setting of said second plurality
of gain settings corresponds to a subset of said first plurality of
gain settings; digitizing the output of said analog amplifier to
provide a digitized signal; using an adjustable gain digital gain
unit to adjust the amplitude of said digitized signal; measuring
the amplitude of the amplified analog signal; determining a number
of gain setting adjustments of said first plurality of gain
settings required to change said amplitude of the analog signal to
a desired amplitude; and adjusting the gain setting of said
adjustable gain analog amplifier only when the required number of
gain setting adjustments of said first plurality of gain settings
equals the number of gain settings in said subset.
12. A method for providing automatic gain control having a first
plurality of gain settings for a signal, comprising: using an
adjustable gain analog amplifier to amplify an analog signal, said
amplifier having a second plurality of gain settings, said second
plurality of gain settings being less than said first plurality of
gain settings, wherein each gain setting of said second plurality
of gain settings corresponds to a subset of said first plurality of
gain settings; digitizing the output of said analog amplifier to
provide a digitized signal, using an adjustable gain digital gain
unit to adjust the amplitude of said digitized signal; measuring
the amplitude of the amplified analog signal; determining which
setting of said first plurality of gain settings is required to
change said amplitude of the amplified analog signal to a desired
amplitude; and when the number of gain setting adjustments equals
the value of the subset of said first plurality of gain settings,
setting the gain of said adjustable gain analog amplifier and said
adjustable gain digital gain unit to change said amplitude of the
amplified analog signal to said desired amplitude.
13. A method according to claim 12, further comprising: determining
the number of gain setting adjustments which are required to change
said amplitude of the amplified analog signal to said desired
amplitude.
14. A system according to claim 1, wherein: said first plurality
equals 2.sup.X, said second plurality equals 2.sup.Y, and said
subset equals 2.sup.X-Y.
15. A system according to claim 1, wherein: said first plurality
equals 2048, said second plurality equals 256; and said subset
equals 8.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to automatic gain control systems and
more particularly to a system having both analog and digital gain
stages controlled by a digital control system.
Signal transmission systems, e.g. broadcast or cable television
systems, generally transmit radio frequency signals over long
distances. The signal levels at various receiving locations will
vary due to differing transmission distances and various levels of
attenuation which may vary from time to time. The receiving systems
generally work best if the received signal is at some optimum
amplitude level for processing the signals. It is common practice
to use automatic gain control, AGC, systems for amplifying received
signals to an optimum level for the signal processing systems. An
AGC system generally includes a variable gain amplifier and a
controller which compares the amplified signal level to a desired
level and adjusts the amplifier gain as needed.
While transmitted signals are analog, it is now common for most
signal processing to be performed by digital systems, e.g. digital
signal processors. After a transmitted signal is received, it may
be converted to a digital signal by an analog to digital, A/D,
converter. It is desirable that the received analog signal be
amplified before the signal is coupled to the AND converter to
allow use of the full range of operation of the A/D converter. Use
of the full range provides the best signal to noise ratio for the
system.
Digital gain units, e.g. multipliers, may also be used to control
signal amplitude once the received signal has been digitized.
Digital multipliers are generally more cost effective than
digitally controlled analog amplifiers in terms of the amount of
board area or silicon area required to implement an AGC with a
given number of gain settings. From this point of view, efficiency
can be obtained by performing gain control with a digital
multiplier and having a fixed gain analog amplifier driving the
A/D. However, the tradeoff is the reduction in signal to noise
ratio which results from not using the full operating range of the
A/D.
It would be desirable to have an automatic gain control system
which combines benefits of digital gain units with the improved
signal to noise ratio which is achieved by use of an gain
controlled analog amplifier driving the input to an A/D.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, an automatic gain control
system combines both an analog variable gain amplifier and a
digital variable gain stage, both controlled by a common digital
gain control system. The analog variable gain amplifier has a
relatively small number of gain settings, selected to provide a
good signal to noise ratio from an A/D converter, while limiting
the board or silicon die area required to implement the gain
settings. The controller controls the gain of both the analog and
digital variable gain amplifiers. As the overall gain setting
crosses over the analog gain settings, the controller changes the
analog gain setting. The controller simultaneously changes the
digital amplifier gain to maintain smooth transitions between gain
levels.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic gain control system
according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
With reference to FIG. 1, there is provided a block diagram of an
automatic gain control system according to the present invention.
An analog signal is received on an input 10 of an analog gain
device 12, e.g. an operational amplifier. The output of amplifier
12 is coupled to the input of an analog to digital, A/D, converter
14. The output 15 of the A/D 14 is coupled to inputs of a magnitude
measurement unit 16 and a digital processing section 18. The output
of magnitude unit 16 is coupled to one input of a multiplier 20.
The output of the multiplier 20 is coupled to one input of an error
measurement unit 22. A desired signal magnitude, which may be a
stored value, is coupled to a second input 24 of error measurement
unit 22. The output of error measurement unit 22 is coupled to one
input of an adder 26. The output of adder 26 is coupled to one
input of a multiplexor 28. The output of multiplexor 28 is coupled
to the input of a register 30. The output 31 of register 30, which
is an AGC value, is coupled to the second input of adder 26, the
second input of multiplier 20 and to the input of an AGC scaling
and crash logic unit 32. It is also coupled to the digital gain
section as discussed below.
The crash logic unit 32 has three outputs. A first output 34
provides a crash value and is coupled to the second input of
multiplexor 28. A second output 36 provides a crash select signal
and is coupled to the select input of multiplexor 28. A third
output 38 provides a gain select signal and is coupled to an analog
gain selection unit 40. In this embodiment, it is preferred that
the input signal on line 31 provide to the AGC scaling logic 32 an
instruction to increase or decrease gain by, for example, one, two,
three, etc. steps. On the next system clock cycle, the AGC scaling
logic 32 will output a value 38, which then selects a particular
analog gain setting in the analog gain selection unit 40. An analog
output of analog gain selection unit 40 is coupled to amplifier 12
to control its analog gain settings.
The AGC value output 31 of register 30 is also coupled to one input
of a multiplier 42. A required digital output gain value, normally
a stored value, is coupled to the other input 44 of multiplier 42.
The output 45 of multiplier 42 is coupled to one input of a
multiplier 46. The output of digital processing unit 18 is coupled
to the other input of multiplier 46. The output 48 of multiplier 46
provides the gain controlled digital output of the automatic gain
control system of the present invention.
The magnitude measurement unit 16 detects the peak values of the
digitized waveform at the output 15 of A/D 14. For example, its
output may be a running average of the last one hundred peak values
received from the A/D 14. It may be referred to as an envelope
detector. If desired, an analog envelope detector may be coupled
directly to the output of the amplifier 12 to provide an analog
magnitude measurement. In order for the analog magnitude
measurement to be coupled to the digital components of the system,
it would need to be converted to a digital signal in an A/D
converter.
The digital processing unit 18 provides only minor signal
processing. It detects and provides line synchronization
information to the other parts of the AGC system of the present
invention. This allows the magnitude measurement block 16 to make
its measurements on only selected portions of the video signal. It
provides the signals to synchronize operation of the error
measurement unit 22, register 30 and scaling and crash logic unit
32. The digital signal from A/D 14 passes through digital
processing unit 18 to the multiplier 46 essentially unchanged. The
scaled output 48 from multiplier 46 will be coupled to another
processing section, for example a digital signal processor
configured to provide MPEG decoding and other processing.
The analog gain selection unit 40 provides selected gain settings
for the analog gain unit 12. For example, if gain unit 12 is an
operational amplifier, the gain selection unit 40 includes a
resistor pair for each gain setting and switches, e.g. transistors,
to connect a resistor pair which sets the gain of the amplifier 12
at a selected value. Each value of the input signal on line 38
should select one set of resistor banks.
The error measurement unit 22 compares the digital signal magnitude
value from magnitude measurement unit 16, multiplied by a current
AGC value on line 31, to the desired signal magnitude value
provided on input 24. Since this is done with digital processing,
the desired signal magnitude value 24 may be a stored digital
value. The unit 22 determines if any additional gain adjustment is
required. If the measured magnitude value matches the desired value
on input 24, it will indicate that no gain adjustment is needed by
for example, providing a zero on its output. If the magnitude
values are different, the unit 22 determines how many steps of
overall system gain adjustment are required to adjust the signal
level to the desired value. This value may be positive, indicating
need to increase gain, or negative, indicating need to reduce gain.
It may indicate any number of gain step adjustments, i.e. one, two,
three, etc.
The present invention is useful in many different types of systems.
It is desirable in most modern communications systems to process
signals digitally, e.g. in digital signal processors, whenever
possible. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, all components, except for
the analog amplifier 12 and the analog gain selection unit 40, may
be part of a digital signal processor. A typical application is
processing of video signals, for example color television signals.
If a digital video system was to be digitized with 10 bits and
provide 0.times. to 2.times. gain to the analog input signal, it
would be desirable that automatic gain control of such signals have
eleven bits of resolution or 2048 gain levels. Prior art approaches
would provide all 2048 gain level in an analog gain section, e.g.
amplifier 12 and gain selection unit 40. Since each gain level is
typically set by a resistor or resistor pair, a large amount of
chip area or circuit board area is required to implement the full
2048 levels in an analog gain section. It is desirable to have a
sufficient range of gain settings in the analog gain section to
keep the A/D 14 operating near its full dynamic range to provide a
good signal to noise ratio. The present invention provides a good
signal to noise ratio while greatly reducing the amount of board or
chip area required to provide the analog gain settings.
Operation of the present invention will be described with reference
to the video receiver application discussed above with 2048 gain
levels. It should be understood that this is only an example, and
the present invention is equally applicable to systems having more
or less gain settings. In this embodiment, a total of 256 gain
levels were selected for the analog section. This is only
one-eighth of the total gain levels and reduces the number of
resistor sets required to one-eighth of what would be required to
implement the full 2048 levels in the analog gain unit. Each analog
gain setting corresponds to or covers eight of the total 2048 gain
settings for the system. Each one step change of gain setting for
the analog gain unit changes the overall system gain by eight
overall system gain settings. Adjustments of gain settings within
each set of eight levels covered by the analog gain unit 12 are
provided digitally through multiplier 46.
Operation of the AGC system will be described with reference to
several different operating conditions. The first condition will
assume that the signal input 10 is of constant amplitude and the
gain setting of amplifier 12 provides the exact gain needed for the
output of A/D 14 to be the desired signal magnitude provided at
input 24 of error measurement unit 22. Under these conditions, the
AGC value at the output of register 30 would be a unity, indicating
no gain adjustment is needed. In this example the AGC value ranges
from 0 2047 with 1024 being unity. The digital inputs to the
multipliers 20 and 42 are multiplied by an AGC value ranging from 0
2047. Then the outputs of the multipliers 20 and 42 are divided by
1024 to scale the multiplier outputs to unity gain. The output of
magnitude measurement unit 16 will be coupled through the
multiplier 20 without change because the AGC value input is unity.
Since the magnitude value coupled from multiplier 20 to error
measurement unit 22 matches the desired signal value input 24,
there is no error and a zero value is coupled to the adder 26.
Since the AGC value is also unity, the output of the adder 26 is
unity and this value is coupled to the register 30. Since the
register 30 has a unity on its input, on the next clock cycle it
will again store a unity value and its output, the AGC value on
line 31, remains at unity.
Continuing with this first example, it will be seen that no digital
gain adjustment is required under these conditions. Since the AGC
value is unity, the digital output gain value on input 44 of
multiplier 42 is coupled unchanged to the input 45 of digital gain
multiplier 46. The digital output gain is normally a preselected
value which scales the digital outputs at output 48 to a level
required for video display equipment. If no scaling is required, or
is effectively a value of one, then the multiplier 42 can be
eliminated and the AGC value on line 31 may be coupled directly to
the input 45 of multiplier 46.
The second condition assumes that the signal level on input 10 is
reduced by a small amount. At this point, the AGC value on line 31
is still a unity. The magnitude value from unit 16 is therefore
coupled through multiplier 20 unchanged. The error measurement unit
22 will detect a difference from the desired value on input 24 and
provide an output indicating a need to increase gain by, e.g., one
step out of the overall 2048 settings or a gain increase of 1/1024.
This value of one step is added to the value of unity gain (1024)
currently stored in the register and on the next clock cycle is
stored in the register 30. At that time, the AGC value on line 31
increases to a value of 1024+1 (a gain of 1024/1024+1/1024). The
magnitude measurement from unit 16 is now multiplied by the AGC
value of 1024/1024+1/1024, increasing the measured magnitude value
input to error measurement unit 22. The output of error measurement
unit 22 then drops to zero, indicating no adjustment in gain is
needed. The AGC value also multiplies the digital gain value 44 by
1024/1024+1/1024, so that the output 48 is increased to offset the
reduced analog signal level. Assuming that the analog signal level
remains at this reduced value, the AGC value will remain at
1024/1024+1/1024, for following clock cycles because the AGC value
on line 31 is fed back through adder 26 to the register 30. The
adder 26 and register 30 act as an accumulator.
The third condition is when the analog input level drops enough to
require an increase of at least seven more gain levels, i.e. seven
of the full 2048 gain levels or a gain of 1024/1024+7/1024, to
maintain the desired signal level. At each clock cycle, as the
input value drops, the error measurement unit 22 detects the
reduced signal level and outputs an indication of need for gain
increase. The additional gain value is added to the current value
in adder 26 and then stored in register 30. Thus, if the drop in
signal level between clock cycles is large enough to call for two
steps of gain increase, a value of two will be added to the initial
value of one and the AGC value on line 31 will call for an increase
of three gain steps. These gain increase (or decrease) values will
continuously adjust the gain in multiplier 46 to maintain the
proper signal level on output 48.
When the input signal level drops sufficiently to raise the AGC
value on line 31 by a value of eight or more gain levels, several
things happen. Each of the 256 gain settings of the analog
amplifier 12 corresponds to eight of the total 2048 gain steps.
When the scaling and crash logic unit 32 detects that a total of
eight (or more) gain step adjustment is required, it sends a signal
to the analog gain selection unit 40 to change the analog amplifier
gain to the next step. In this example, it would increase the gain
by one of the 256 settings. At the same time that scaling and crash
logic unit 40 does this, it also resets the value in register 30.
It does this by sending an appropriate gain value out on the crash
value line 34 to the second input of the multiplexor 28, and a
crash select signal 36 to the select input of the multiplexor
causing it to pass the crash value signal to the register 30. Both
adjustments occur simultaneously on the next clock cycle. Thus if
the analog gain selection unit 34 increased the analog gain by one
step, the AGC value setting would be decreased by eight steps. The
total system gain remains the same. The scaling and crash logic
unit 40 then changes the crash select signal to allow the error
values to be passed through to the register and the process
described above continues.
In some cases the AGC value may change from a value of, for
example, seven steps to, for example, ten steps in one clock cycle.
A ten-step change in gain is two more than is achieved by a
one-step change in the analog amplifier gain. The scaling and crash
logic unit 32 determines the difference in such a case and resets
the register 30 accordingly. Thus, if a ten-step increase is
needed, it would increase the analog gain by one analog step and
reset the AGC value on line 31 to a value of eight steps less than
the previous value.
The above description applies equally to conditions of increasing
signal level on input 10. When the magnitude level from unit 16
exceeds the desired signal magnitude 24, the error signal indicates
a decrease in the digital gain levels. When that value reaches or
exceeds a negative eight steps, the analog gain will be reduced by
one analog gain step and the digital AGC setting will be increased
by eight for each analog step reduction.
As noted above, the numbers of analog and digital gain steps can be
selected according to the particular application where an AGC
system is needed. With digital controls it will normally be
convenient for the various gain steps to correspond to the binary
counting system. For example the system of FIG. 1 could have 128
analog gain settings with each analog gain setting corresponding to
sixteen overall or digital gain settings. This would still provide
a total of 2048 gain steps for the system, and would require even
fewer resistors for the analog gain selection circuitry. For
digital systems using word lengths other than the ten bits
discussed herein for video systems, the total number of gain
settings may be changed accordingly.
While the present invention has been illustrated and described in
terms of particular apparatus and methods of use, it is apparent
that equivalent parts may be substituted of those shown and other
changes can be made within the scope of the present invention as
defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *